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Middle Age Russ wrote:
We notice another interesting protective behavior from the Boxers as well. They were not comfortable DA or the kids being close to the fireplace when we had wood burning. I was the only one allowed access to the fireplace without interferance from them. If DA or the kids approached it, the dogs would get between them and the fireplace and stay there unless they were firmly moved. No aggressive behavior at all from them in this, just very protective.

You picked up on a trait that breed is known for.

Story: When I was in grade school, my parents and several other families were party to a lawsuit against an individual. This guy set fire to several houses, all of them part of this lawsuit. (He was formerly an arson/building inspector and knew how to make it look like an accident)
He was literally crazy and very dangerous. He broke into a friend's house and rigged their water heater for one of these fires. The other was made to look electrical. He would break in when no one was home. He was too cowardly to confront you directly.
Sugar Land PD "knew" it was him, but had no evidence.

Anyway, my parents were struggling financially and couldn't afford cameras and other security measures beyond a basic alarm system, so after doing a lot of homework, they bought a boxer for that very reason. Boxers are wary of fire by nature, and of course, also very protective in general.

Thankfully, our house was never targeted (that we know of), and eventually the guy ended up getting murdered in Alvin, but my parents still own boxers today.

Jumping Frog wrote:

Scott in Houston wrote:. . .The study went on to say that the dog was not reading the visitor first... he was reading the homeowner, his master. He was picking up on the 'spidey sense' that the homeowner has, but ignores or squelches. Even when we brush off the feelings, the dog picks up on them.
. . . Our dogs listen to our gut better than we do according to this study.

I completely agree with your scenario.

I grew up with a mother-son German Shepherd pair in our home. There were also seven children, which also meant there were at least as many neighborhood kids around all the time, in and out of the house, playing football, basketball, "army", and other kid stuff . . . Zoo Central, in other words.

Those German Shepherds were the gentlest and friendliest dogs you could ever want to meet. With the constant parade of kids in and out, door bell ringing, TV blaring, kids playing, they reached the point that they were completely uninterested in who came to the door. They never barked, and they didn't even bother coming to the door.

One day, my mother hears the doorbell. The dogs are in the back screen porch taking a nap two rooms away from the front door. She answers the door and it was a man selling fish door-to-door. She is looking through the screen door at the fish, and then decides she doesn't want any. She is completely relaxed through all of this.

Suddenly, she just had this sense -- this knowing -- that the man was going to come though the front screen door and attack her. She went from relaxed to very frightened in about a millisecond. From out of nowhere, and without any warning, both dogs were at the front screen door snarling and barking and showing their teeth, and jumping against the door trying to break through it.

It is the only time either dog ever barked or showed it's teeth to a human. They knew.

Great story. I bet he left pretty quickly!!

I love Shepherds. What great dogs. I wish my wife wasn't so allergic or we'd have at least one.

Divided Attention wrote:This is what the "Gift of Fear" is about - folks have learned to ignore their "Spidey Senses" instead of embrace them. Good read even though I didn't agree with everything the author had to say about guns and people carrying them.

Agree... I can't find it online, but I read, in print, a study about dogs and their ability to sense 'bad guys'.
We all have the belief that dogs can sense when people are up to no good and look out for us. This is true to an extent but they go through a process and we're the first step in their process for reading a situation. See below:

The study laid out the typical scenario...
Visitor at the door 'selling something', the homeowner and the dog answer the door, and the dog senses that there's something wrong with the visitor and scares them off.

The study went on to say that the dog was not reading the visitor first... he was reading the homeowner, his master. He was picking up on the 'spidey sense' that the homeowner has, but ignores or squelches. Even when we brush off the feelings, the dog picks up on them.

Too many times, we try and logically excuse this feeling, but the dogs can sense that we have this feeling regardless of how we handle it. They read us before reading the visitor. The dog is actually reacting to us! Not the guy at the door.

This can explain why sometimes they may react this way to people who are not up to anything wrong. Like a legit salesman or delivery man, etc.

If we feel something is off, they'll react, even if there's nothing wrong. It's just our spidey sense, but we may be wrong. I remember meter reader coming in our yard. He was legit with a bright shirt on that said "Reliant Energy" etc. Somehow, I was still a little taken off guard, startled, but acted friendly to him by saying hello, etc, knowing that logically, all was ok. (my gut still bothered me though). And he was perfectly nice and friendly back, but our dog was going nuts. (A 90 lb boxer). I said, "Don't worry, he just wants to play." trying to make him feel less scared of our dog. His response, "I'd rather NOT 'play' right now." haha
I know he was legit because I called Reliant to see if I was right with my 'spidey sense' or I was just caught by surprise. It was the latter. He was totally legit.

We need to remember to listen to our gut and not dismiss it with "this can't ever happen in this neighborhood" or "this only happens to other people". Our dogs listen to our gut better than we do according to this study.